Skype founders sue eBay over copyright infringement

Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zenstrom have filed a copyright infringement suit against current owner eBay and the members of an investment group who recently agreed to acquire a majority stake in Skype. Through their company Joltid, the suitors are seeking for an injunction against Skype and statutory damages, which are reportedly "amassing at a rate of more than $75 million daily."

At the heart of this whole issue is the peer-to-peer technology that makes the service work, which eBay had been licensing from Joltid since purchasing Skype in 2005, and Joltid terminated after learning that Skype had allegedly acquired unauthorized versions of the source code, made its own modifications, and disclosed the software to third parties.

The lawsuit has the potential to complicate the $1.9 billion sale of Skype, though in the past eBay has said it's working on its own software to replace Joltid's technology. It remains to be seen if this in-house solution will match or improve the call quality currently offered by Skype.